1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and, more specifically, to an image processing apparatus having a function to display a thumbnail image which includes reduced image data.
2. Description of Related Art
In an image processing apparatus such as a digital multifunction peripheral having a copying function, a facsimile function, a printer function and a scanner function, there is a type in which a user is able to select and execute one of color image processing and monochrome image processing on the basis of image data of a document scanned by a scanner. In such the image processing apparatuses, the user selects either one of the color image processing and the monochrome image processing before starting scanning of the document.
However, when the user selects one of the color image processing and the monochrome image processing to be executed before starting the scanning of the document in this manner, an image to be printed (an image after processing) on a printing paper after having executed the image processing to be executed subsequently cannot be previewed by the user. Therefore, there is an apparatus which displays a thumbnail image of images on the basis of the image data for monochrome output and images on the basis of the image data for color output on a display unit after having scanned the document, and allows the user to select one of these images to be printed.
On the other hand, some digital multifunction peripherals include a function to transmit the image data through an internet facsimile. When executing the internet facsimile transmission, the image data is converted to have a file format which is attachable to electronic mails by a codec to prepare an attachment file for the electronic mails. Then, a mail attached with the prepared attachment file is transmitted. However, since the color image data includes a large quantity of data, when an attempt is made to transmit the color image data through the internet facsimile, the size of the color image is changed, that is, the image data is reduced in size before transmission.
Some digital multifunction peripherals have a function to transmit a requested image to a personal computer connected via a LAN or the like upon reception of a request from the personal computer to transmit images accumulated in the digital multifunction peripheral. When a thumbnail image of the images accumulated in the digital multifunction peripheral is requested, the digital multifunction peripheral of this type prepares and transmits the thumbnail image of the requested images.